The question above has been answered so well that researched numbers and measurements conducted on the behavioral patterns of Internet users are readily availalable. Cisco released a forecast, accounting for the actual trends in terms of visual networking and also predicting how these will change and evolve for the next few years.

We will attempt to explain the origins of this ascending trend with the numbers that prove it, putting into perspective an incredible amount of data that would otherwise be meaningless.

How it all started

Television has been popular ever since its invention – it’s one of the fundamental objects our environments are never devoid of. Even in third-world countries, the rudimentary entertainment unit takes priority over other household investments.

Indeed, there’s abiological reason for this, as our brains are hard-wired to instantly give attention to any source of light or moving object in our visual field. Media and technology has relied on this natural imperative highly, the effects of which are easily noticeable in children born in the 21st century.

Survey data indicates that the average child of today spends about 35 hours a week in front of the TV. The typical 10 hours of gaming on computers, consoles, tablets or phones can also be added to this.

It is no wonder that generations born after the year 2000 would rather have their information presented to them in an interactive manner – they spend almost 7 hours every day of the week in front of some form of video animation.

The result is that 60% of internet viewers now prefer videos over text advertisements. Remarkably, video is 6 times more effective than any other form of advertisement within the domain of marketing.

How this affects the number of website visitors

The basic content marketing principle today is focused on micro-content. This means that delivering bite-sized pieces of information embedded on landing pages is the most effective strategy to use in order to grow the awareness and popularity of a certain product. It does make sense that a young adult who is accustomed to spending at least half of their spare time connected to the digital environment relates easier to a movie than they do to a book or a novella. The enticing consequence is that the digital world supersedes the real one for such an individual, albeit at an unconscious level – memories, thoughts, preferences, wants and aspirations are all digitalized for others to be able to see as well. In a way, media starts to dictate the way in which the real is supposed to behave or look like, rendering it unsurprising that the majority of us would rather understand, commit to memory and talk about an animation or story we have seen than a written discourse.

The growth does not stop here, as two thirds of any online video watchers are likely to share that content with their friends on social networks. If your webpage contains video content, your chances of being ranked on the 1st page when a user googles anything related to your service or product are 53% higher. In addition, the regular visitor will spend an average 2 minutes longer viewing your content and is 84% more likely to purchase your product if there’s a video presentation of it.

As a corporation, you’re either online or you’re absent altogether

So how does this affect your business? Well, UN numbers indicate that the typical cost of having broadband connection to the internet is going to comprise 5% of the average global monthly income by next year. They also specify that over 3 billion people around the world have access to the internet.

Combine this with the Cisco data and what results is that a crisp 2.4 billion individuals watch videos. At the 11th Pacific-Asia Conference on Information Systems, a paper study explored the mechanics of the on-growing popularity of videos in content marketing, considering essential data that is already available from the field of neuroscience.

Some of the conclusions were that the combination of motion and lighting activates more areas of your brain than the plain reading of a text, speeding up the process of memorizing by as much as threefold. Moreover, a product or service that also comes with a video presentation or tutorial is consistently regarded as being better by the average user than an alternative which did not employ these content marketing techniques.

Baking success with the right amount of crust

It seems that enterprises have no other choice but to adapt to this highly visual and digitalized world if they are to expand or even survive the conditions of a capitalist economy. Nonetheless, it’s not as easy as it may seem to encode the right amount of information in a video that is both attractive and informational.

The basic steps of a successful video campaign involve creating story-based content, which people can relate to personally, that is also integrated in their cultural context and purpose-oriented. Confronting today’s affordability of creating online video content for your brand with the impact that it has on potential customers, it could not be more evident that the investment is well worth the cost – what’s more, the rapidly growing popularity is going to make your decision even more profitable in the long run.

We are Diana and Vlad, a young, married couple, currently studying for an MA in Irish Literature. We have graduated from a BA in English and Comparative Literature and, on a personal note, want to stick together through all the experiences of life. Freelancing offers us this possibility, and that is our greatest motivation to combine our skills, our resourcefulness and our creative thinking toward...